Aug. 20, 2011

Photo Gallery |  Boxscore

MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin volleyball team held its annual intrasquad scrimmage in front of more than 600 fans on Saturday afternoon at the UW Field House. Led by dominance on both sides of the ball, the Cardinal team defeated the White team in the four-set match, winning 25-20, 25-15, 25-23, 25-13.

“The scrimmage was good,” said head coach Pete Waite. “The team has been battling in practice the last 10 days and we’ve seen some good things. In practice, we normally mix up the lineups and this one, we pretty much went with the same lineup the whole time so they could get used to each other in front of a crowd.”

Redshirt junior Kristy Bourquin led all players offensively with 17 kills and connected on half of her attacks. She also added eight block assists, accounting for half of the Cardinal team’s 16 total. Freshman Crystal Graff finished with 12 kills for the Cardinal team while committing only one error. In addition to Bourquin, the Cardinal had three other players hit over .400.

Junior Mary Ording led the White team with 13 kills and hitting .267. Freshman KT Kvas wasn’t far behind, hitting .256 and finishing with a team-high 12 digs. Junior Bailey Reshel added nine kills for the White team and finished with 10 digs.

“We had some people who did nice things who we hadn’t seen before,” said Waite. “There are some good signs of things and we’re looking at a deeper team than last year and that’s good.”
The Cardinal team as a whole hit .338 compared to the White team’s .082. The Cardinal also outblocked the White squad 8-2 and outdug its opponents 61-52.

Freshman Courtney Thomas put up 29 assists for the Cardinal team, which ran both a 6-2 and 5-1 offense. Senior Janelle Gabrielsen added 17 assists for the Cardinal.

Sophomore Annemarie Hickey led all players on the defensive side of the ball with 19 digs. Thomas and Gabrielsen chipped in 12 each for the Cardinal team, while Reshel finished with 10 digs for the White squad.

“Overall, I think we have better defenders on the court (this year),” said Waite. “The ones we have returning from last year have improved a lot and the newcomers are very good defenders. That’s really increased the intensity of the rallies on the court and I know that fans are going to like that.”

Hickey also led all players with three service aces for the Cardinal, while sophomore Julie Mikaelsen had two in a row for the White team. The Cardinal tallied eight service aces as a team, but struggled with serving errors, recording 17.

Wisconsin opens its regular season on the road next weekend at the Duke Invitational in Durham, N.C.

“We’ll get back in the gym and work on some of these things (this week),” said Waite. “The players know they have to focus on how to play in front of crowds, but I also know they get charged up for matches and tournaments so it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

The Badgers face off against Charleston Southern to open the tournament on Friday at 4 p.m. CT.

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/wis/sports/w-volley/auto_pdf/2011-12/box_score/stats_20110820aaa.pdf